Private Topics are topics that are not public to the general forum community. Only those users who have been given permission will be able to see private topics. Users, in this case, will have a Private Topics folder or category appear on their home page. Therefore, multiple users can participate in private threads.
Conversely, private messages are for communication between one user and another user. If enabled by the forum administrator, a user can send private messages to another user within the forum community. However, users have the option of using this functionality. They can enable it by specifying so in the user’s profile.
Users will see a Private Topics category on their home page if the administrator has given them permissions to view it. If permission has been granted, the user can create his/her own private topic within the private category, and he/she can also select the users to whom he wants to grant access. To create a private topic, click the New Topic link that appears in the menu navigation bar. Find the users to whom access rights to the private topic should be granted, and click on the Create Topic button. Enter the private topic title, summary, and the message to post. When all information has been provided, click on the Post Message button.
A user can send a private message to another user in one of two ways. If a user is in a thread, and wishes to send a message to a user that has posted a message, he/she can quickly do that by clicking on the “Send Private Message” icon, which is located at the top right of the message window. The “Send Private Message” window will be displayed for the user to enter the body of the message. After entering the message, click on the “Send Private Message” button to send the message to the intended recipient.
Alternatively, a user can access his Private Messages Center by clicking on the “Private Messages” link that appears in the personal navigation menu. In the Private Messages Center, the user will be able to search for a user in the community by entering a name in the “Send Private Message” field and clicking on the Send button, or by searching for the name by clicking on the icon. When the intended recipient of the private message has been found, the Send Private Message window will appear for the user to enter his/her message. Click on the button at the bottom of the window to send it.
A user can also send a private message with a private topic. Although the topic is private, it is viewable by all users who have been granted rights to view the private topic. If a user wishes to send a private message to another user without it being viewed by others in the private topic, he/she can click on the Send Private Message.
Users can read their own private messages from two different locations, but both reside in the user’s personal navigation menu. A quick list of private messages will be displayed under the Private Messages heading. Only a small number of characters of the body of the message will appear, while sender information is unknown. By clicking on the link to a private message, the user will be prompted with the message in its entirety, and the sender information will become known.
Alternatively, a user can access his/her Private Messages Center by clicking on the “Private Messages” link that appears in the personal navigation menu. In the Private Messages Center, the user will be able to view all private messages that were received, as well private messages that were sent. Each private message listed describes the sender, a synopsis of the private message, when it was received, if it has been read, a link to view the message and a link to delete the message.
A user can also view his/her Private Message User History by clicking on the letter that corresponds to the first letter of a username. If results are found, the username will be displayed along with the total number of private messages sent, when the user was last online and an option to view the messages.
A user can reply to a private message by clicking the “Reply” button that appears at the top in the Private Message window. The user can also view the sender’s profile (if enabled by the sender) and view the message history within the Private Message window. Within the Private Messages Center, the user can select a private message to which he/her wants to send a response from the list of all private messages received, and clicks on the Reply icon.
A user can delete only his private messages individually or by grouping. This can be accomplished in a couple of ways, within the Private Messages Center. A user can enter a date from which all private messages prior will be deleted. Alternatively, a user can mark messages to be deleted either individually or by clicking the “select all” button and deleting en mass.
the user can select an individual or multiple or all private messages listed in the history log, and click on the corresponding Delete icon, or click the Delete button that is located at the bottom right.